NEW DELHI: The Railway Board on Saturday announced that fares of AC chair car, executive classes of all trains, including Vande Bharat, will be reduced by up to 25%.
The railways said the decision was part of a discounted fare scheme in trains that saw below-50% occupancy during the last 30 days.
The railways said the decision was part of a discounted fare scheme in trains that saw below-50% occupancy during the last 30 days.
With a view to optimise utilisation of accommodation in trains, the railways ministry said it has decided to delegate powers to Zonal Railways to introduce discounted fare scheme in trains with AC sitting accommodation.
Salient points of the scheme:
- The railways ministry said the discount of up to 25% will be applied to the basic fare.
- Other charges like reservation charge, Super fast surcharge, GST, etc., as applicable, shall be levied separately.
- Train having classes with occupancy less than 50% (either end to end or in some specified legs/ sections) during the last 30 days shall be taken into consideration.
- The fares of competitive mode of transport shall be the criteria while deciding quantum of discount.
- Discount to be implemented with immediate effect.
- Such discount shall be initially implemented for a period as decided by Principal Chief Commercial Managers of the zones corresponding to the originating station of the train, subject to a maximum of six months for the journey dates from when it is implemented.
- Discounted fare may be given for the entire duration or part duration or month wise or seasonal or for week days/ weekends based on demand pattern of the aforementioned period.
- No refund of fare shall be admissible for already booked passengers.
- In case of those trains where flexi fare scheme is applicable in a particular class and the occupancy is poor, flexi fare scheme may be withdrawn initially as a measure to increase the occupancy.
- This scheme shall not be applicable on special trains introduced as holiday/festival specials etc.
- Tatkal quota shall not be earmarked in such trains for the decided period in case the discount is provided on end to end basis. Further, if discount is provided for part journey of the train, then tatkal quota may not be provided for the part of the journey where discount is given.
- The discount can be applied to tickets booked up to preparation of 1st chart and during current booking. The discount may also be permitted onboard by TTE.
- The provision of this scheme shall be applicable upto a period of 1 year.
Data show that the occupancy rate of recently launched Vande Bharat Express trains on four new routes such as Indore-Bhopal, Jabalpur-Bhopal, and Madgaon-Mumbai have very low occupancy rate in the range of 21% to 55%.
